Housing Standards of the English Working-Classes, 1837-1914

This thesis deals with the question of changes in the standards of working-class housing over the period from 1837 to 1914. As many, if not most, of the popu­lation until the late nineteenth century had experience of living in rural areas, it is by such standards that urban conditions are judged. Using a nineteenth-century basis of reference makes it easier to understand the problems which confronted those involved in bringing about changes at the time, whereas the use of a more modern benchmark only makes such understanding more difficult.

The first part of the thesis deals with the analy­tical structure, involving an examination of both demand and supply factors, and the way in which they could have been expected to have affected the situation. Out of this first part comes the expectation that the explana­tions of changing standards differ as between the rural and the urban context. In rural areas, after the eigh­teen thirties, depopulation seems to assume a dominant role in explaining the possible improvements in housing conditions, through its effect on the demand side. In urban areas, by contrast, demand increased so rapidly that supply was liable to fall behind it in some periods, and overall provide the basis for only a slow and gradual improvement.